1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sliding door locking device for a vehicle such as a van, which locks a sliding door provided at a side of a body of the vehicle when a fuel filler lid is opened, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a sliding door locking device for a vehicle, in which a striker for locking and unlocking a sliding door and a latch lock are designed in a manner such that a mechanical interaction therebetween is optimized, thereby reducing manufacturing cost and rendering a simple structure of the entire sliding door locking device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, as the leisure-seeking segment of the population has experienced growing numbers, a van type vehicle has made gains public favor. The van type vehicle adopts a sliding door at a side of its body, from the standpoint of passengers' convenience. The sliding door is provided at one side, that is, a left side or a right side of the body of the vehicle, and a fuel filler lid of the vehicle is arranged on the other side which is opposite to the one side having the sliding door.
In the meanwhile, these days, another van type vehicle which adopts a pair of sliding doors arranged at both sides, respectively of a body of the vehicle, in view of passengers convenience, is gaining in popularity. If the pair of sliding doors are arranged at both sides of the body as described above, as shown in FIG. 1, a fuel filler lid 1 is arranged along with the sliding door 12 at one side of the body.
However, in the vehicle in which the sliding door is arranged along with the fuel filler door at one side of the body of the vehicle, when the sliding door is opened, at the one side having the fuel filler lid within the limits of movement of the sliding door, while the fuel filler lid is opened and fuel is being filled into a fuel tank, there has a problem the sliding door can be collide with the fuel filler lid.
To cope with this problem, a sliding door locking device for a vehicle is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,620,744. The sliding door locking device serves to prevent a sliding door which is provided at the same side of a body of the vehicle, with a fuel filler lid, from being opened when the fuel filler lid is opened. In the sliding door locking device, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, an operating part 103 of an actuating lever 102 is located inward of a fuel filler lid 101 which is hingedly opened and closed. The actuating lever 102 is connected via a link member 104 having a rod-shaped configuration to a stopper lever 107 which acts on a stop member 106. Therefore, if the operating part 103 of the actuating lever 102 is pulled after the fuel filler lid 101 is opened, as the actuating lever 102 is hingedly rotated, the actuating lever 102 pulls the link member 104. According to this, the link member 104 rotates the stopper lever 107, and as a free end 107a of the stopper lever 107 is engaged with the stop member 106 of a sliding door 105, the sliding door 105 is prevented from being moved.
However, the sliding door locking device constructed as mentioned above still encounters a problem in that its operation involves annoying features. Also, in addition to the above described device, arrangements as stated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,520,431 and 5,676,416, yet still suffer from defects in that since they have complicated structures, they require a significant number of parts which increase both manufacturing cost and assembly time.